German NatCo trials Facebook ‘connectivity analytics’ to cut down time and cost of network rollout.

Vincent Gongue, Product Management Lead for Facebook Connectivity Data Science Products, revealed that the hyperscaler had been experimenting with Telekom Deutschland (TDE) on a suite of Facebook-developed network planning tools, with a view to covering a “dense urban area” in Berlin.

Gongue indicated the trial was a simulation exercise, rather than a field deployment.

TDE provided Facebook with geographical and network data to ‘connect‘ 25,000 apartments within 1km2. The task was to plot delivery of “maximum coverage” of at least 1Gbps via a mix of fibre-to-the-home and wireless-to-the-home (FTTH/WTTH) technologies, using Facebook’s Advanced Network Planning tools. Gongue said this goal was achieved, coupled with a minimum guarantee of 100Mbps on the downlink.

There was no clear indication if the trial had future 5G rollout specifically in mind, or which WTTH technologies were put through their theoretical paces.

Facebook digs deeper into ecosystem mix

In a blog posted on Facebook’s website, Gongue fleshed out more detail on Facebook’s thinking behind its Advanced Network Planning and Actionable Insights tools. He emphasised the importance of smart deployment. “In our work with operators, internet service providers, and device makers we aim to find new, more efficient ways to deploy and maintain mobile network infrastructure”, he said.

A key part of the smart deployment approach is to analyse usage information from sources like Facebook, as well as population density maps and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) or satellite imagery. LiDAR is an optical remote-sensing technique that uses laser light to densely sample the surface of the earth, which purportedly produces highly accurate ‘x‘, ‘y‘, and ‘z‘ measurements. “We are able to help the ecosystem better understand the state of connectivity”, claimed Gongue.

Algorithms are then developed to minimise the cost of expanding network coverage by helping operators do things more quickly and efficiently, such as planning fibre builds while ensuring the network is reliable. Gongue added that Advanced Network Planning was launched with a “handful of partners” earlier in 2018, and that initial results have been promising.

“In developed markets, creating networks for the future requires a high number of network nodes to ensure the system can handle higher bandwidth traffic such as video streaming. Advanced Network Planning focuses on making the planning process faster, cheaper, and better designed to meet people’s needs. For example, it can help operators decide where to use fibre or alternatives for backhaul connectivity, or where to place cell towers to effectively connect the most people. ” – Gongue.

Pole dancing in Berlin

Analysis of street lighting infrastructure, and how best to leverage it for network deployment, is a key part of Advanced Network Planning. It played a significant part in the Berlin trial.

“To power future urban networks leveraging millimetre wave, operators will need to leverage existing city infrastructure such as light poles. Advanced Network Planning identifies light poles with LiDAR data using computer vision. We help network planners identify relevant objects to help build their networks. For example, green identifies a straight line that is likely a light pole, and red identifies what could be the arm of a light pole. ” – Gongue.

In Berlin, the simulation exercise with TDE focused on how to deploy technology on street lights of different types, in order to achieve line-of-sight connectivity. Revealed by Gongue at the recent TIP Summit ’18 – the annual gathering of the Facebook-led Telecom Infra Project (TIP), held in London in mid-October 2018 (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #77), the Facebook executive said the process required just “four hours [of] computer vision and labelling time”, and that it involved excluding a certain type of pole that was “forbidden to deploy on”. There was also a need to remove the possibility of interference between different nodes, as well as to “attune to demand” in a way that could provide greater density where network demands were higher.

The simulation ended up nominating 700 poles, with more than 7,000 line-of-sight links between them. According to Gongue, the Berlin project found around 60% of homes could be “sustained” with wireless, and the rest with fibre. He said this “proved the business case”. No details were provided at the TIP Summit about how TDE might use Facebook’s planning tools for commercial network deployment.

TDE is clearly keen on smart network deployment. In October 2018, the NatCo teamed up with the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques (IPM) to apply artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the planning of FTTH rollout (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #76). In a pilot conducted in Bornheim, near Bonn, a measuring vehicle equipped with 360-degree cameras, GPS, and laser scanners was used to collect detailed environmental data. Roughly 5GB of surface data was gathered per kilometre, and then analysed via software developed by Fraunhofer IPM. The software is designed to automatically recognise, localise, and classify relevant objects in the measurement data. AI and machine learning algorithms, again developed by the research institute, are then used to work out the optimal route for laying fibre.

Further, in November 2018, Huawei Technologies announced a localised FTTH contract with TDE purportedly aimed at putting new technology and construction methods through their paces. The project will extend to 3,000 households in the rural Fuldabrück area of Hesse, and will see Huawei provide its Smart Terminal Box, Smart Fibre Access Terminal, Easy Cables, and Smart Optical Network Terminal. A new laying method – possibly related to the micro-trenching technique regularly promoted by DT (Deutsche Telekomwatch, #73 and passim) – will apparently be used in the project, and will reduce the space required for construction work to a ‘minimum‘, since the cable trench is 10cm wide. Construction work is slated to take less than one year, and the first Gigabit connections are scheduled for operation in 2019.